Shipwreck
by A.Fox
Summary: Some things in life are better left unseen...or undiscovered for that matter.


(I don't own Dreamkeepers, though the OC of Phil is mine.)

The waters of the Alchera Ocean lapped around the Andurunian exploring vessel known as _The Son of Thunder_.

About two months ago, Viscount Callah had commissioned an expedition to the East as part of an attempt to increase his own popularity.  
Unlike previous attempts to find land, the charts used for this were ancient maps discovered by a previously unknown archeologist named Dr. John Suttle.

Phil looked over the side of the boat with abandon, it had been two months and there was no land in sight.

Phil was a thin cat-like Dreamkeeper who'd been sailing since he was a teenager, and had been on two previous attempts to find land in the Alchera Ocean.

And this was looking like just another bust.

Phil began to close his eyes and try to drift off to sleep when a large cry pierced the air.

"LAND HO!"

Phil's head slowly turned around and looked off to the distance. Much to his own surprise, he could see land off in the distance.

"What be this?" Phil grumbled "Are we back home now?"

While his sarcasm was meant for his own ears, a younger (more optimistic) sailor named Cayliss (who reminded Phil a lot of his dead little brother) overheard him.

"No sir" he said the youth "They've found new land."

Phil just huffed and looked back over the edge.

Little did he realize just what he was about to witness.

In about an hour, the land was in enough distance for a dinghy to make it.

The land in question was an island that Suttle estimated was about 24 miles wide, and possibly about ten miles in length. It wasn't the size of land they were looking for, but it was enough to lift the spirits of several of his crewmates.

It took about half an hour for a dinghy to be lowered into the water. In it was Dr. Suttle, a diplomat in case they found natives, a language expert, four sailors to man the boat, and six shock troopers.

The sailors weren't allowed to have weapons, so in case of pirates the city provided the _Son of Thunder_ with about twenty shock troopers

Phil pulled out a pair of binoculars so he could watch what was going on.  
"Let's see if those loonies actually succeed in finding something" the pessimistic sailor grumbled to himself.

As he could see, the dinghy had soon reached the shore. Those aboard left it as soon as it had touched sand, and for a few minutes there was nothing.

Then, something amazing happened. A bizarre, almost furless (except for a bit of it at the top of his head) man walked out of the forest. He dressed in the manner of a researcher, and was holding what looked a lot like a wine glass.  
"Amazing!" Exclaimed Cayliss (who had his own pair of binoculars) "W-we're witnessing a new kind of Dreamkeeper…I didn't think anything like this…man exist."

Phil said nothing and looked on as the diplomat approached the man, intent on finding out more about him.

But just after that, things turned from good to bad.

As soon as the diplomat spoke to the man, the human said something else. Judging by the shocked reaction of them, he assumed it was something terrible (though soon he'd only realize that, that was only half the truth.)  
And he was right on that. For no sooner had the man spoke, a large number of similar beings leapt out of the cover of the trees.

Unlike the man, these men were covered from head to toe in armor, and each held a weapon that looked like a much shorter version of a Springer Rifle.

Whatever these weapons were, they proceeded to quickly kill all the Dreamkeepers on the beach, sometimes tearing them completely apart.

Cayliss was beside himself with fear. "W-w-what's going on?"  
The captain (an old dog-like Dreamkeeper with a peg leg) shook his head and gave a sensible reply "I don't know, but what we got to do is get the fuck out of here."  
He turned to try and reach the helm, when a shock trooper (the captain of the battalion put there) blocked his path.

"We aren't running, we shall simply gun these dogs down now" the man said.

"Are you fucking mental?" The captain growled "You saw what those men down there did. Those things are too strong, we must run while we still can."  
"And I say-"

The shock trooper was cut off mid-sentence by some kind of light beam that blasted through his head.

The noise it produced drove most the crew to turn their heads and see a shocking sight behind them.

You see, everyone had been keeping their attention upon the island, not a single man was looking behind them…so imagine their surprise when they saw over a dozen large machines zooming towards them.

They each appeared to have an oval shape and were about twenty feet wide and fifteen feet tall. At the top there appeared to be two domes, one of which had a gun barrel of some sort sticking out of them.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that was where the shot came from, and the troopers hurriedly assembled a position to open fire on them from. Most of the sailors hit the deck instead.

And wise were they, for a few seconds and a barrage of light beams later all thirteen shock troopers were killed. Along with the captain (who'd been a little slow in ducking down), poor Cayliss, and about twenty others, due to the fact they didn't realize what was going on.

Phil turned his head away from the carnage when the blasts ended, and looked out towards the beach.

Much to his surprise, the researcher he'd seen had somehow floated up in the air and was headed towards the ship.

After a few minutes the man floated right above the crew's heads.

For a few seconds he waited in silence before chuckling and saying (in a prideful, cruel and yet oddly sophisticated voice) "Well you lot don't seem to be impressed easily."

He sipped the last of what he was drinking in his wine glass (Phil suspected it could have been blood) before pulling out a folder and continuing.  
"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dr. , and you all have been selected for death.

"However" he added "I'm in a generous mood today so I'll let one of you live, but nobody else."  
Phil could practically smell the fear coming off of the rest of the crew, and could tell that Dr. enjoyed the fear he saw.

"And just to make things fair" he said, a sadistic smile growing on his lips "I shall select the survivor, at random." He closed his eyes and began to point his finger about "Einie…"  
Everyone broke out in a cold sweat "Meenie…"

"Minie…" The terror and tension rose for a couple minutes as the doctor enjoyed their fear.

"You!" He said with a smug sneer on his face…and a finger pointed towards Phil.

With no warning, Phil suddenly found himself rising off the ground. Soon he was eye level with the evil bastard responsible for plenty of deaths that day.

But just as soon as he'd lifted off the ground, more light beams tore through everyone else on deck.

The doctor casually looked at the massacre below and back at the folder "Yes" he remarked "That should be everyone. Tinsel's information was accurate, I can admit that much."

Phil's eye twitched, he'd knew quite a few people down there. Some were men he'd known since he was a kid, most of them had families, loved ones who were waiting for them to return.

Despite being up in the air Phil tried to lunge towards Dr. ...but found he couldn't move in the air.  
The doctor took note and wagged a finger at him "Naughty, naughty. You shouldn't try to bite the hand keeping you in the air. Especially since I need you alive."

"You…you…you rotten bastard!" Phil roared "What the fuck are you?!"  
Dr. threw his head back and let out a laugh, a laugh of sadism, evil…and 100% pure creepiness.  
"What am I?" He said "I'm the future, I'm the superior being, and I'm a God among the fucking mortals!"

A grin rose up on his face, Phil would never forget that grin for even his nightmares showed that horrible, horrible man.

"And as it happens, somebody needs to let your 'Dreamworld' know of me…"

"And that's what happened." Phil said to the crowd of drunken sailors listening to Phil's story

Phil had made it back to Anduruna alright, but somehow Dr. had used some poison to force his body to not move at all and clenched some form of canister in his arms, then sent him adrift in a lifeboat near Anduruna.

When it washed onshore a large fuss was made over a book found when they opened the canister labeled "The Doctrine of Dr. ." The government's response was to claim that what Phil had encountered was pure nonsense, especially the part about Dr. mentioning Tinsel.

As a result Phil was forced to hide lest he get thrown out of the city, hiding among the bars and drinking fermente on a constant basis in hopes of forgetting Dr. altogether.

The book was kept in custody until a group of youths broke in and stole it somehow.

A cult based around the book had opened up soon afterwards.

Currently, Phil was swallowing down fermente and had been telling his story to a group of drunken sailors.  
Of course no sooner had he finished, they left and began referring to his story as a "odd yarn"…all that is, except for a youth who didn't even look old enough to drink.

"Hey you!" Phil grumbled "Why aren't you leaving?"

"Did this actually happen?" The youth asked, ignoring the question.

Phil groaned before replying "As much as I hate to say it, yes it is. I actually did encounter this fucker…and I ain't soused either, I'd need much more than this" he gestured to the bottle (of three) fermente he was drinking "To get me soused, I only took up drinking after I met that…fiend."  
He took another swig of his booze before continuing "Why the fuck do you ask? Are you another of those loony cult fanatics of his?"  
"No" the youth replied, looking over his shoulder before continuing "I think I saw him."  
Phil's eyes rose up with surprise when he heard this "What be your name boy?"  
The youth looked nervously over his shoulder again before giving his answer.

"It's Mace."


End file.
